This invention relates generally to talking books particularly for children and, more particularly, to an improved talking book having a self-contained power source, voice chip and speaker. A talking book is a book capable of "reading" to the user the printed words on its pages, or of providing sounds that correspond to pictures on its pages.
Talking books are known in the prior art but they have not been entirely satisfactory. For example, early attempts at designing talking books required separate player units to be used in conjunction with a book. Examples of such arrangements can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,086,297, 3,553,851 and 4,021,932. U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,391 shows a book which requires a separate power source and sound playback unit but incorporates a voice generating system in the book.
A self-contained book has also been provided as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,230, but the unit shown therein is operated by punching buttons similar to a touch-tone phone. The buttons are accessible at all points in the book through cut-outs in the pages. This arrangement is disadvantageous because cut-outs have to be formed in all of the pages, and a relatively complex button pressing procedure is required.
The sound producing mechanism may "read" the written words on a page rather than have a single word spoken or a single sound made, and a talking book of this type can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,573.
Talking books are useful both for entertainment and in teaching young children how to read. It is, therefore, desirable for a talking book to be easy to use. As has been noted, many of the prior talking books required the use of separate audio player units which are difficult for many young people to manipulate. U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,538 discloses a book having lines of text with magnetic strips located below the words, but in order to make the book "talk," the user must slide a "pick-up member" over a magnetic strip with the proper pressure and speed to operate the book satisfactorily.